Throwing his trash cans in the container without thinking about it is over. A new, more restrictive system is being developed in many French municipalities.
Imagine having to badger to take out your waste, as we badge to enter a building or the office. In some municipalities, it is no longer a futuristic scenario: it is already a reality. Residents must now present a card or badge to access the garbage terminals. No more throwing your bag anytime, or anyhow. In others, as in Besançon, Épinal or Bergerac, it is the containers that are equipped with electronic chips allowing to know the users and to follow their deposits precisely.
But why a badge or an electronic chip? Because this technology makes it possible to identify each household and precisely measure the amount of waste produced. Some garbage cans are equipped with sensors, flea bins, and certain terminals only open upon presentation of the badge. No more anonymous gesture, each deposit is counted.
Behind this new system, a principle: incentive pricing. Concretely, the more you throw, the more you pay. The price only concerns residual waste, those that are put in the gray trash after having sorted the rest. It may depend on the number of times you take out your tank, the thrown volume or even the number of bags purchased. Conversely, if you are sorting well and reduce your waste, the invoice drops. The goal: to push everyone to change their habits, to limit discharge and incineration and promote recycling. Will this system become the norm in all of France? It is not yet compulsory, but things move quickly. Many communities have already adopted it, but elsewhere, as in Paris, door-to-door collection remains the standard, without badge or chip. The Ministry of Ecology has confirmed that there is no national obligation: each community decides on its own methods. Result: depending on where you live, you might have to badger your trash can … or not.
This development meets a major issue: reduce the amount of household waste and empower everyone in the face of what they throw. Municipalities seek to limit collection and treatment costs, while achieving the objectives set by law in terms of waste reduction.
